Slipped Discs October 2015
Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd
Kisses
Initial Thoughts
Scattered to the wind, autumn albums can’t sit still. Whether unsettled by antsy avant-pop necromancer BIRTHMARK’s kaleidoscopic, “How You Look When You’re Falling Down,” or seeking vibrant asylums with light-fingered pianist OSCAR PEREZ’s intuitive Latin-jazz musings, “Prepare A Place For Me,” random meandering seems unavoidable. Corner sullen strong-armed gun-runners CITY CALM DOWN’s prowling alt-rock skullduggery, “In A Restless House.” before cavorting with funky thumpers KISSES’ disco limbo, “Rest in Paradise.”
Disc Reviews
Ozere - Finding Anyplace
Ozere
Album title: Finding Anyplace
Record Label: self-release
Evoking global chamber-folk beneath a lively mixture of crisp traditions, Ozere’s classically-trained musicians’ adventurous jigs, formal pastorals and deft two-steps serve harvest feasts on Sunday linen. Brisk mandolin and wishful violin mingle in cordial joys spiked with swift mischief, spinning, “Anyplace,” with dizzy gypsy pizzicato to twirl proper foxtrot debutantes besides diverting parlor-game flirts with parlayed pirouettes and unpretentious poise.
(2414) Page Views
Ozere online:
• Website • Facebook
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City and Colour - If I Should Go Before You
City and Colour
Album title: If I Should Go Before You
Record Label: Dine Alone
Bold, blue-eyed falsettos perched between deep-seated power-chord missions and smitten pop-rock exhibitions, “If,” prowls, prods and paces in earnest second-chance anthems, red-blooded love-letter confessions and sly shadow-dancing advances. Embraceable fates reflecting on heavenly redemption through riverboat blues packed with rousing thunderclap backing, CAC’s insistent vindication runs on hopped-up optimism and crackling salvation to drive past high-jacked passions into tender surrender.
(1928) Page Views
City and Colour online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download If I Should Go Before You from Amazon
• Purchase If I Should Go Before You on Amazon
Long Beard - Sleepwalker
Long Beard
Album title: Sleepwalker
Record Label: Team Love
Candle-lit trysts treading through jazz-backed jangle hidden in ambient brambles, Long Beard’s sonic cauldrons brew narco-folk oceans soaked in reverb-swirling maternity and soft sparkling arcs. Churning with vague yearning capped in passive rapture, “Sleepwalker,” weaves its lost horizons and bottomless fogs around clattering satellites unleashing pantry banshees strung from delicate electric canopies engulfed by wayward favors shipped in shining innocence.
(2152) Page Views
Long Beard online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download Sleepwalker from Amazon
Joe Jackson - Fast Forward
Joe Jackson
Album title: Fast Forward
Record Label: Work Song
Four bands assembled in four cities, the ambitious, “Fast,” crafts ballsy philosophy from articulate cynics’ sophisticated vagrancy; romantic scamps impatiently chasing polyrhythmic pop salted in salsa, mad-dog punk drunk on Caruso and exotic rock slathered in Arabic jazz. An uncanny analyst, Jackson’s sharp-tongued fun vents universal sentiments into savvy cabaret featuring belligerent sinners, jaded saints and explosive, precocious talk-show hosts.
(1991) Page Views
Joe Jackson online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download Fast Forward from Amazon
• Purchase Fast Forward on Amazon
Samson the Truest - Come Back Shane
Samson the Truest
Album title: Come Back Shane
Record Label: Hart Beat Hustle
Crooning over subdued grooves making steady headway to imaginary sanctuaries, Brooklyn songwriter Samson’s easy-going charm gently rocks fireside insights into masterfully compassionate parables, melodic solace warms character-actor narratives into slow-burning parades glazed with persuasive side-winder kindness staging hopeful folk overtures alongside uncertain soul-searching curtain-calls. Sleepy alley-cat ballads, casually balanced, low-key and inquisitive, “Shane,” frames humble bedroom ballet inside poignant orchestration.
(2026) Page Views
Samson the Truest online:
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• Download Come Back Shane from Amazon
Whiskerman - Nomad
Whiskerman
Album title: Nomad
Record Label: OIM Records
Zapped in looking-glass flash, “Nomad,” wanders wantonly with peyote-folk panache searching among turbulent skyrocket births cleansed in reckless treks for posh cosmic jaunts where woozy strings wring galactic grit from drowsy gospel-rock riffs. Rootless suitors pursuing human connections, Whiskerman’s stately faith in vagabond escapes pits triple-dipped paisley against country-fried revivals to fuel bluesy spirals sweeping symphonic cascades over cathartic harmonics.
(2039) Page Views
Whiskerman online:
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Final Thoughts
An unusually godly October celebrates superhuman delusions with larger than life tunes. From trampoline dream-pop schemer NAYTRONIX’s incandescent, “Mister Divine,” to garage-rock surgeons PROTOMARTYRS jagged post-punk aftermaths, “The Agent Intellect,” unchecked egos prosper. Time-lapse traps from pristine percolator PRINCESS CENTURY promises beat-driven, “Progress,” while silver-tongued punch-card vanguards YOUNG GALAXY’s pop-soul idolatry cautions against, “Falsework.” Fearlessly surreal imagineers OBERHOFER offers randy rock-candy, “Chronovision.” to combat loose, cubist storm-troopers GUN OUTFIT’s omnipresent space-cowboy blues, “Dream All Over.” and bleary-eyed cyber-phantoms THEE KOUKOUVAYA’s, impending psycho-chemical bender, “This is the Mythology of Modern Death.”